memory of the future

We are fully in the swing of winter now (I say, while leaving my parka unzipped outside). We are also nearing the Olympics, so I will take this opportunity to make a PSA and say: under no circumstances should you support the French ice dance team and here is why.

On to the music.

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It’s so interesting to me how different J-ent companies are approaching boybands right now. You have JE transforming their newest boybands into utaite; Stardust chugging along in the 2010s musically but now with TikTok-ready dances; BMSG going full K-pop from the audition show down to the “fan”cams; and Avex replicating 2000s K-pop, except for the one group trying for something similar to Why Don’t We until they pivoted and went C-idol pop (although half of them are still doing R&B-lite solo releases). And now Yoshiki is doing a boyband audition show!

Like, obviously girl groups and boybands are very different markets, but I’d love to have boybands with an identifiable sound. (I don’t necessarily want a consistent producer, although that helps — Nakata and Perfume being the most famous example, but Suiyoubi no Campanella was originally meant to be a girl group, and a lot of indie girl groups have a single producer.) The Stardust groups probably come closest to having an identifiable sound, if you exclude Choutokkyuu for being a meme and GenJibu’s original incarnation, and it makes sense because Stardust is better known for its girl groups.

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If you were expecting actual sports, I can do a belated figure skating worlds update. Kaori gold! Roman Sadovsky did okay! Adam Siao Him Fa is the only dude with decent music. And obviously very happy for Stephane and his son Shoma.

Read the Paul Poirier interview in Glory from back in June today. It’s a long interview, and he talks about being a gay figure skater, the heteronormativity of ice dance, and the ban on athletes being political and the inherent politics of the Olympics.

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Cut from my previous post, because it felt out of place.

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Before the last episode airs I just want to do some retrospection. Back in March when the first Yuri on Ice trailer aired and we knew nothing but the names of Yuuri, Victor, and Yuri, I was already over the moon. I finally had a figure skating anime, one with good animation and beautiful choreography. I was still worried of course, that they would make amateur mistakes about the figure skating world or the points system (I was fully prepared to write essays about GOE). But I was hopeful.

The first episode finally aired after months of waiting. I thought Victuuri was too over the top at first, but willing to forgive that for the good writing and relatable characters. Onsen on Ice seemed silly but it’s an anime, right? The choreography was good, the music was good, the animation was decent. All of my expectations were already met and I was delighted.

Then we started to see more of the skating world—the little things like skating club friendships, the small circle of competitive figure skating where everyone knows each other from being in the same events and banquets and hotels. The highs and lows that happen when you’re on the ice for long minutes by yourself with all of the stress in the world on you. The slowly development of Victor and Yuuri’s relationship from comic relief to something deeper and timeless. The involvement of world-renown skaters, from Evgenia Medvedeva’s cosplaying to Nobunari Oda and Stéphane Lambiel’s cameos. Watching Yuri on Ice making fans discover, or rediscover, a love of skating. In a few short months, it’s become something much larger than just a simple anime about figure skating.

Whatever comes after this, it’s been an amazing journey with Kubo-sensei, the Yuri on Ice team, and everyone else.

⛸

Yuri on Ice acknowledging the “feminine” element of men’s figure skating means so much. For decades there have been loud voices in the skating community who insist that men’s skaters had to be masculine and macho, but Yuri on Ice embraced the feminine men’s skater as the style of a winner.

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